Pan Recommends for the week of September 26 to October 2

Robert Boyd

THURSDAY


Gaia, Mies Van Der Rohe at Charles One Center, Baltimore (Part of Legacy Project), 2012-13

GAIA: Marshland, Rice University Art Gallery, 5–7 pm. I don't know what to expect from this installation by a credentialed "street artist" with a very pompous name, Gaia. Big faces presumably.

Help Yourself: Mark Ponder and Ariane Roesch, curated by Rachel Hooper , EMERGEncy Room Gallery, 7 to 10 pm. I don't quite know what to expect here. Ariane Roesch is known for her work using EL wire, though. And Ponder has a video.



BETSY HUETE: Interiorities at the Matchbox Gallery, 8 to 11 pm. Betsy Huete is a writer for this here blog, which should be the only reason you need to the see her show. Aside from that, all I can say is that I hope this joint includes the above-pictured varmint.

FRIDAY


Rachel Hecker, Can't Fly


Rachel Hecker: Group Show, 2013 Texas Artist of the Year, Art League Houston, 6–9 pm. Reportedly this show involves carved styrofoam snowmen in a winter wonderland-style installation. I don't have any photos of that, so here's a photo of a Rachel Hecker painting of a post-it note from my personal collection.


Kermit Oliver, A Swine Before a Silvered Bowl of River Pearls, 2012

Kermit Oliver: Tracing Our Pilgrimage, Lifetime Achievement Award in the Visual Arts , Art League Houston, 6–9 pm. An exceptional artist like Kermit Oliver must sometimes feel like he is casting his pearls before swine (like me). Here's a chance to see a room full of this painter's astonishing work.


Luc Tuymans portrait

Nice. Luc Tuymans, Menil Collection, 6–8 pm. A selection of the Belgian painter's monochromatic, washed-out portraits.

MOVING VIOLATION by Mark Nelson,  14 Pews on Friday, 6 to 9pm. Houston artist Mark Nelson presents a multi-media installation on the theme of motion.

SATURDAY


Ward Sanders, From the Ruins of Industrie , 2013 , assemblage , 9 x 7.5 x 3"

Q&A Session with Jacqueline Dee Parker and Ward Sanders conducted by yours truly at Hooks Epstein Galleries, 2:30 pm. RSVP strongly suggested. I am very pleased to be conducting this talk Parker and Sanders. Expect French sounding words like "collage", "assemblage" and "bricolage" to be uttered.


Brian Jobe, Channel Modules, 2012, basswood, paint, flagging tape, 7.5" x 64" x 3"

TransAMplitude with J. Derrick Durham, Brian R. Jobe, Carin Rodenborn and Heidi Wehring at BLUEorange Contemporary, 6–9 pm. Take the bus to see  this show that is described as "an investigation of transit."


Jo Ann Fleischhauer, detail of one of the new clock faces

What Time Is It? by Jo Ann Fleischhauer (with composers Anthony Brandt and Chapman Welch and new music group Musiqa), The Louis and Annie Friedman Clock Tower, 6:30–9:30 pm. This sounds like an interesting intervention on the old clock at Market Square.


Did this influence my Pan Art Fair decision?

Eyesore and Give Up: Current work and Collaborative efforts, Cardoza Fine Art, 8–11 pm. Eyesore and Give Up, two wheatpaste-style street artists whose work might be described as "not nice," show new work.

Pan Recommends for the week of October 4 through October 10

Here's what looks good this week. Let us know if we overlooked something special!

FRIDAY

Paperwork, a group show at Darke Gallery, October 5, 2012 from 6–9 pm. Works on paper by Wendy Wagner, Lillian Warren, Lovie Olivia, Rabéa Ballin, Kia Nell, Steven J. Miller and John Adelman. This is especially notable because it features Wendy Wagner's first new work since her brain surgery in May.

Joey Fauerso: Interior at David Shelton Gallery on October 5, 2012 from 6–8 pm. Fauerso did a funny naked video last year at Box 13, and it looks like the nakedness will continue at David Shelton Gallery. Excellent.

 SATURDAY

Zinefest at Super Happy Fun Land on October 6th, 2012 from 3pm - 8pm. I thought the internet had pretty much killed zines, but I guess their are people who prefer physical objects over electrons and protons. You can meet a bunch of them at Zinefest!

Daniel McFarlane: In Industry at the Galveston Arts Center on October 6, 2012 from 5–9 pm. Tough call! Lots of interesting stuff happening in Houston Saturday night, but this Daniel McFarlane exhibit in Galveston is sure to be a winner. I hate it when that happens.

Winter Street and Spring Street Studios Fall Artist Exhibition at the Winter Street Studios on October 6, 2012 from 5–10 pm. 110 artists will be there showing off their stuff, including the uncategorizable Solomon Kane (the artist, not the vampire-fighting Puritan).

Ariane Roesch: Simple Machines and Simple Dreams at Redbud Gallery on October 6, 2012 from 6–9 pm. Looks like more glowy artwork from Ariane Roesch. And we love glowy art.

 

Cuddly Computers by Ariane Roesch

by Robert Boyd


Pablo Picasso, Bull's Head, 1942, bicycle seat and handlebars

When Picasso attached a set of handlebars to a bicycle seat to make a bull's head, he was prefiguring one of the great themes of sculpture for the next 70 years--transformation. This has frequently involved taking a subject and making a sculpture of it that transforms one or more seemingly essential quality of the subject.


Claes Oldenberg, Giant Soft Fan--Ghost Version, 1967, canvas, wood, polyurethane foam

This is what Claes Oldenberg did with his soft sculptures, such as the MFAH's Giant Soft Fan--Ghost Version. He takes an object that is inherently hard, an electric fan, and by rendering out of cloth turns it into something that is mostly soft and droopy. He transforms the fan in other ways, too. He turns a small object--a desktop fan--into a very large object. And he performs the fundamental Pop Art transformation--from anonymous, trivial mass-culture object to unique work of art. Since then, we have seen tiny objects rendered large, large objects made small, common objects remade with precious materials, rugged objects remade as fragile objects, innocuous objects made dangerous, etc.

I was thinking of Claes Oldenberg's sculptures when I saw Ariane Roesch's Playmates, on view at Box 13 through June 23. She has taken early computers and rendered them in felt with stuffing. She has, in effect, turned them into a cross between a throw pillow and a plushie.


Arianne Roesch, Playmates (installation view), 2012

According to the description of the work on the Box 13 web page, Roesch is depicting computers from just at the moment when they were starting to be used in the home, when they ceased to be purely utilitarian and became partly for entertainment. (This is something of an error. Even back in the days when you had to dial up from a teletype terminal to a centralized mainframe, there were games. I remember in 7th grade wasting many hours playing a game then called "Advent," which later was marketed under the name Zork. If you know the phrase,"You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike," you have probably played a version of this game.)


Arianne Roesch, Playmates (detail), 2012

The main thing here is that the computers have been transformed. They are no longer useful, but they are huggable. As much as we love our computers, as much as design-savvy computer makers have tried to turn them into attractive objects, computers still feel hard and technological to many of us. They don't feel cute and cuddly, like the Playmates do. (In Japan, robots in popular culture have long been considered "cute," but I don't think our relationship with technology is quite the same in the U.S., despite movies like Wall-E.) So Roesch's sculptural transformation is therefore quite extreme.


Arianne Roesch, Playmates (detail), 2012

When you see these soft droopy sculptures of computers, you want to hug them. And no matter how much you love your actual computer, I bet you have never considered hugging it.

Evolving the Role of Art Dealer: UNIT

by Robert Boyd

A few weeks ago, I saw Ariane Roesch's pop-up gallery, UNIT, at Kinzelman Art Consulting. I was curious about UNIT, which is basically an online store for limited edition prints in various media. So I asked Roesch if I could ask a bunch of nosy questions about her online enterprise, and she graciously consented.

I'm particularly interested in art sellers like UNIT because they offer an alternative to galleries. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with galleries (galleries of the world--you know I love ya!), but for many would-be art buyers, galleries have a series of problematic features. They tend to be pretty pricey--which leaves less wealthy art lovers out. They tend to be somewhat confusing, opaque sales environments for newbies. What a site like UNIT does is offer--for some buyers--a more comfortable buying experience.

I sent Roesch a series of questions about UNIT, which she has answered below.  The artwork used to  illustrate this post is all available from UNIT.


Lewis Mauk, Orange Colgate, Serigraph (silkscreen), edition of 10, size 11”x40” inches

What is UNIT? When did it begin?
UNIT is an online resource and store for limited edition prints, products, and prints by emerging and established artists. Each item is unit of a whole, at least an edition of 10 but no more than 100, available as a whole UNIT. This means that one can either purchase a print as is or already matted, framed and ready to hang on your wall – UNIT even provides the hanging hardware complimentary. UNIT represents and only frames with HALBE. They are easy to use, front-loading magnetic picture frames that are manufactured in Germany. Each HALBE Frame comes already pre-assembled - as a UNIT - with glass, backing, and a storage box and does not require any additional tools to frame. It’s a simple, clean, and fully archival design that makes it easy to reuse or install at a permanent location. UNIT was created the 1st day of Christmas 2011, 12/1/2011, and officially was launched Valentine’s Day 2012 featuring a special edition – ‘Love Your UNIT’ – a framed linocut print available for $50.

Did you found UNIT? If so, why?
I have a personal weakness for printed material and limited edition pieces. As an artist, I like to construct hand-made pieces – objects, books, cds – as a small edition. I love prints, flyers, street art, quirky artist books, multiples, etc… the whole printmaking ritual is really fascinating to me as well as the idea of making multiples – it’s a very interesting and affordable way to promote and self-publish. Although we have a large print community in Houston - Burning Bones Press and the PrintMatters Group to name a few – there isn’t a commercial art space in Houston specifically dedicated to limited editions. UNIT is a way to showcase work from local, national, and international artists. Is UNIT meant to be strictly an online art dealer? Although mainly based online, works available on the UNIT website can be viewed at its physical flat file location or during a pop-up exhibition. So far, UNIT has organized two small shows, ‘Picture Your UNIT’ at the Gallery Sonja Roesch for FotoFest and ‘Prop Up Your UNIT’ at Kinzelman Art Consulting. I am currently organizing a large Exhibition, titled ‘Horror Vacui’, to be shown during the summer for PrintHouston in the Gallery Sonja Roesch space. The opening is scheduled for July 14.


Jan van der Ploeg, Big Calm, 2010, screenprint, edition of 25, 50 x 40 cm (19.7" x 15.7" inches)

How frequently does UNIT release new editions/artworks/publications?
Since it is a rolling submission process, new editions can be added as they are accepted. Though the real push for getting new work will be a coming up exhibition, such as the one this summer. Our monthly newsletter will always feature an edition as well as mention any new additions.

How would you compare UNIT to other online art dealer/publishers (for example 20x200)?
There are tons of websites that sell affordable artwork or limited editions from established artists, but UNIT, as the name suggests is really about providing a full package so to say… not just selling affordable art but also providing the framing, hanging hardware, tools and advice on how to install work, take care of it, keep track of it and essentially starting an art collection. Its kind of a fusion between ventures like 20x200 and sites like Fuse-Works or Grey Area with an IKEA sensibility: real art by real artists made easy to acquire, install, and take care of. Even though it is not an “original”, it is still a unique piece since each piece is hand-made/hand-assembled by the artist – this is why UNIT does not feature anything completely digital.

Does UNIT specialize in local/regional art? Or is it art from all over?
The work is from all over. Currently UNIT features artists based in Houston, Los Angeles, Boulder, and France. How do you choose the artists UNIT is selling work by? The work has to fit the basic criteria: An edition of at least 10 but no more than 100, hand-made or hand-constructed by the artist or a press, nothing digital and if digital, there should be a non-digital component to it. Although I don’t want to assume an absolute curatorial role, I essentially make the decision. I’m striving to keep an open policy through a process or referrals, suggestions, and an always open and rolling submission process. What I do look for are Artists that work in a variety of media, and see the idea of a multiple as a field of artistic discourse and inquiry itself, rather than a way to mass-produce their work.


Gissette Padilla, Malicious Compliance (part I of III), edition of 5, Positive Lithography, 22" x 30" inches

How does UNIT promote/advertise itself?
That’s going to be an ongoing and evolving process as UNIT grows. Currently we have a monthly newsletter, Facebook, Google, a listed shopping cart, press, and events through pop-up exhibitions. We are in the process of being listed on printed-editions.com a website that lists galleries dealing with limited editions, mainly prints by established artists, and we will be looking into more web based advertising as the year progresses.

Does UNIT print the works? If not, who does? (I know the work is in various media, so I assume there are multiple printers.)
UNIT doesn’t print any of the work - all items are made by the artist or a printing press. UNIT can produce in terms of connecting people. I work closely with the artist or organization to develop an idea for an edition based on their work and then find the best and most efficient and economical way to produce it. For example, I’m currently working with Glasstire to develop a set of editions that will be launched and for sale through UNIT starting this summer. The proceeds from these editions will benefit Glasstire.


Harry Gamboa Jr., Alarmist Gets Her Curl, 2005, from the series Siren's Post-Acid Complex, Edition of 40, 16" x 24" inches

You are an artist and some of your own art is available through UNIT. Do you foresee difficulty being both an artist and an entrepreneur? Both in terms of time commitment and in terms of the basic difference between the two roles--or have these roles converged (i.e., Murakami or Jeff Koons)?
I define an entrepreneur as someone who is self-employed and with that definition I think all artists essentially are entrepreneurs. Even if you are not pursuing the commercial gallery aspect, you are still self-promoting and pursuing either artist residencies, grants, etc. I consider UNIT a part of my practice. Beyond simply running a space it is the monthly newsletter, the text, the special editions, the tag lines, the ads, etc that I enjoy conceptually playing with and seeing the response. UNIT sells artwork, but the whole project is an artwork as a commercial endeavor. Having an artist space, though it is time consuming, is a wonderful way to connect with and promote other artists that are interested in a similar dialog. It’s more like creating a community. My own work is listed but it’s complemented and enriched by a wide range of other works by other artists. Time becomes the true test. Can you sustain making art and running a space and also continue doing all the “fun” stuff that goes along for both? With UNIT being based online, and occasional pop-up exhibitions as the opportunity presents itself, I’m limiting some of the common stresses of running a space. The goal is to have one large exhibition once a year in the summer to present the current listed work. The rest of the year the newsletter will be the monthly “exhibition” with featured items, special interviews, and other UNIT information.

Kallinen Contemporary's Krazy Scene

by Robert Boyd

Randall Kallinen is an attorney specializing in civil rights cases. His law office is in a warehouse-like space on Broadway, spitting distance from the ship channel. He has turned that space into an art gallery, and for its inaugural exhibit, the space has been crammed full of art, including a lot of his own work. His large, paint-spattered canvases are actually used as temporary wall-space in the big floor of the warehouse. Kallinen himself hosted his opening in an outfit that was half flâneur and half Jackson Pollack.


Randall Kallinen and Ariane Roesch

The opening exhibit was an overstuffed jumble of art of wildly divergent quality. (The title of the exhibit gives it all away: Space Zombie Mayan Apocalyptic Human Sacrifice Uplift Mofo Party Plan Spring Break 2012. When you see a title like that, you know to expect sensory overload.) At first, I thought it had all the hallmarks of a Paul Horn production--wildly overstuffed, extremely uneven. However, the show was in fact curated by sculptor  John Paul Hartman. (Confusingly, there is a minimal website for Kallinen Horn Gallery. So even though the invite referred to Kallinen Contemporary, Paul Horn is definitely involved and had work in the show)

Describing this show is a bit fruitless. Fortunately, I took a lot of photos and a few of them were more-or-less in focus. So presented here are a bunch of photos, some annotated, of one of the weirdest art shows I've seen in a while.


Kallinen Contemporary interior


Kallinen Contemporary interior


Randall Kallinen's neatly arranged paint-dripped shoes


Yamin Cespedes, 8th Passenger, wood, 10" x 8" x 20" in, 2011

Yamin Cespedes' 8th Passenger is kind of the ultimate hunting trophy. Keep your Ibexes and Siberian Tigers--I bagged an Alien!



Amerimou$, Man and Woman, bathroom sign, paper, 8" x 6" each, 2011

Amerimou$ had some of the most interesting art in the show. In addition to pieces like these two bathroom signs (where he takes the simplified Mickey Mouse logo and combines it with generic "ped" figures), he also has some intriguing sculptural work.


Amerimou$, Energy, fuel tanks, electric cables, light cords, surge protector, spray paint, dimensions variable, 2011

To me, this is a better piece than the "Mickey Mouse" ear pieces. Attacking Disney as a generic representation of fake plastic America, a sterilized fascist simulacrum--well, it's been done. Done over and over since the 60s. But this sculpture, while its political meaning is obvious, also has a beautiful, slightly mysterious presence. This is what makes it a stronger work.


John Paul Hartman, Screaming Shadow of War, plexiglas, bronze, hand forge iron, bronzing paint, 64" x 46" x 8", 2002

I mistook this piece by John Paul Hartman for a bronze sculpture at first, but it's mostly plexiglass painted to look bronze. The bronze gives it the look of municipal sculptures--founders of universities (like the statue of William Rice in the quad at Rice University) or famous war leaders (like the Sam Houston statue in Hermann Park). What I think about when I see bronze are war memorials. I lived in rural New England, and small towns there almost always had memorials for the war dead from the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, etc. But this sculpture, a flapping wing diving down toward the viewer, is a monument to fear. We lived in fear from the skies after 9-11, and now our enemies (and many, many innocent bystanders) look fearfully to the skies for our own screaming Predators their Hellfire missiles.


Camargo Valentino, Pope not so Innocent, oil on canvas, 56" x 48", 2009 

Pope not so Innocent by Camago Valentino (who apparently studied with Odd Nerdrum!) is a tribute to Velazquez and I guess Francis Bacon, it seems to have been painted too early to be a tribute to Occupy Wall Street--but it's hard not to read it that way now.
 

Alicia Duplan, Turn on Your Love Light, mixed media, 108" x 18" x 18", 2011

There were several glowing sculptures, including Turn on Your Love Light by Alicia Duplan, which I thought were excellent. They had to be displayed in a darkened room. The dark in this case becomes a part of the work.


Ariane Roesch, Rung-By-Rung, mixed media, 108" x 17" x 12", 2012

Here is another self-illuminated work, this time by Ariane Roesch.


Daniel Johnston, Coke Zero in hand, chatting with a fan


Daniel Johnston installation

Among the artists in the show was Daniel Johnston, who showed a bunch of his drawings (and had even more stacked on the floor) and signed copies of his new graphic novel, Space Ducks. Unfortunately, they sold out of Space Ducks before I could buy a copy. However, I did buy the picture below:


Daniel Johnston, Don't Play Cards With Satan, marker on paper, 20" x 15"


William Reid, Hostages, acrylic on canvas, 34" x 35", 2011

William Reid is Daniel Johnston's nephew. He's a presence in Houston at various art openings, but I really knew nothing about his art until I saw his pieces here. The paintings he showed had a painted element and an element that was created with sparklers burning the surface. Naturally this makes one think of Cai Guo-Qiang, but the work actually resembles in some ways the art of Bill FitzGibbons, who uses a blow-torch (I believe) on his otherwise white canvases. I guess I'm saying that burning an image onto a canvas is not the most original idea in the world (let's not forget Yves Klien's fire paintings from 1961!), but Reid does a good job of making an arresting image out of paint and burnt gesso.


Edu Portillo, Gonzo the Clown, fabric, wood, plastic, dimensions variable, 2011

I remember seeing Edu Portillo's, Gonzo the Clown hanging out around the U.H. art department. Nice to see it displayed in a venue that can accommodate its immensity. This piece would scare me if I was a child, I think!


Kelley Devine

My previous contact with Kelley Devine had been with her paintings of super-thin model-like women, which I didn't care for. She has a sculptural installation in the show, but what caught my eye was this image on her t-shirt, where a woman (typical of the women she paints) with antlers. The antlers are textured with typography that looks like it comes from a newspaper. This shirt is related to a series of paintings she has done collectively called "Dangerous Games." But I like the graphic quality of the shirt better than the paintings. Some of her drawings on printed pages have this quality, as do some of her prints. But this shirt suggests that maybe she should consider working in silkscreen, combining her drawing and printed matter in one graphically bold combination.

The Texas Contemporary Art Fair part 4

by Robert Boyd

At this point, you must be asking yourself--what else is there to say? Not much, really! But I still have a little more...


 The Worst Piece of Art at the Fair


Boy, there were a lot of worthy contenders. But my personal "favorite" was a piece so bad it took two artists to make, Tim Berg and Rebekah Myers.



Tim Berg and Rebekah Myers,  Here today, gone tomorrow, fiberglass, paint, wood, 2011

This giant dumb thing was actually an edition of 20, and you'll be delighted to know that one of the three that Dean Project had with them had already sold by the time I snapped this photo. Congratulations Dean Project! You came down to Houston and really pulled a fast one on us slow-talkin' rubes.

It's Not All Eye Candy

OK, I've kind of been misrepresenting the fair. All the work I've shown you has, for the most part, been visually arresting in one way or another (ie, "eye candy"). And I include in this description work I liked and work I hated. The thing here is that if you are going to travel from New York or Los Angeles and pay $10K for a booth for three and a half days, you need to show art that grabs people by the lapels and says "Look at me!" So whenever someone eschewed that strategy, I noticed.


Asya Resnikov, Kitchen Sink, video sculpture, 2010

I thought this piece by Asya Resnikov was very clever and likable, but it was entirely possible to miss it at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery booth. I literally mistook it for some unpacked boxes when I first walked by.



Peter Soriano, various wall pieces, spray paint and hardware, 2011

Peter Soriano did these pieces that look like builder's markings on in-progress construction projects. They look like a code where a foreman in instructing a plumber that some piece of plumbing will go here, and something else will go there, etc. And the hardware is installed right into the walls of the booth, and the spray-paint likewise painted on the booth. When they took this booth down, the artworks presumably were destroyed. Physically destroyed, anyway. Whereas Dean Projects was giving Houston collectors a giant shiny sculpture of dessert, Lennon, Weinberg, Inc. were practically daring Houston collectors to move way out of their comfort zone. And it was an all-in bet--Soriano was the only artist they were showing, as far as I could tell.



Andy Coolquitt, Bic Stick (Rainbow), found bic lighters, acrylic, 2011

Austin artist Andy Coolquitt had this amusing piece of trash sculpture. I'm sorry to say I can't remember what gallery was showing this piece, but they were smart--the put it across from a giant Coolquitt installation.


Non-Commercial Art



Andy Coolquitt, Plus Sign, plexiglass and random crap, 2011

It's hard to convey the feeling of this installation, Plus Sign by Andy Coolquitt, in a photo. It is a big "X" made out of plexiglass, surrounded by pieces of random junk, including a crumpled pair of pants that I almost kicked several times as I walked by. This being an art fair, I guess if someone had named the right price for this, they could have bought it. But actually, that wasn't the point, believe it or not. TCAF (in collaboration with some local art institutions) commissioned a bunch of "special projects"--installations to be shown at the fair. In this way, they veered towards being a museum and away from an art fair. And obviously, because these were not pieces that some gallery had to sell, they didn't have that requirement to be eye-candy.

An art fair exists to make money, so I am always looking for an underlying commercial motivation for any action they undertake. Here's my theory about the special projects. As you will recall, TCAF spun off of the Houston Fine Art Fair when director Max Fishko had a falling out with former employer Hamptons Expo Group, the people who run the HFAF. So he knew his fair would be the second fair. In strategy class at business school, you always learn about the "first mover advantage." All things being equal, the first mover into a marketplace will have a huge advantage over all subsequent entrants. What this says to "second movers" is that they have to work hard to differentiate their product from the first mover's product. It has to be both different, and if possible, better. The iPhone, for example, wasn't the first smart phone, but it succeeded because it was so distinct and so much better than the Blackberry.

So Fishko and his team have worked to make TCAF really distinct from HFAF. And I'd contend that including all these special projects made it better in one way than HFAF. They brand the fair as an art fair that is not 100% focused on commerce. That seems like smart branding to me.



Jason Willaford, Out of Site - Out of Sight, chrome plated oil barrels, 2010

Jason Willaford's Out of Site - Out of Sight is an ironic work. On one hand, it is sort of a protest against oil. But on his website, he asks this question: "Would it be easier to chrome our filth ,so it mirrors it's surroundings making it out of sight , or should we embrace the opulence of our accomplishments ?!" The funny thing is that I could see this sculpture in the lobby of an oil company.



Tracy Snelling, El Diablo Inn, video and mixed media, 2010

Tracey Snelling's El Diablo Inn was a realistic diorama of a seedy motel, where in two of the windows there were videos playing depicting what was happening inside. I'm not sure what the videos were, but I think one of them was a scene from the remake of Psycho. The other one was a sex scene. I liked the piece a lot, but I wish iy had been on a table--it would have been easier to see.

 
Ariane Roesch, Going Undercover, shipping container and EL wire, 2011

Ariane Roesch had a huge installation that you could walk into and hang out for a while, away from the crowds. She used her trademark material--EL wire (which I think will replace Christmas lights eventually).

So in the end, was TCAF successful? I didn't attend the show on Sunday, so I wasn't able to ask the gallerists nosy questions about how well they did. That said, I saw a lot of red dots. I think this may reflect that the art here was generally less expensive than the art at HFAF. There were fewer major names, more emerging artists, and the work was priced accordingly. Even excluding the $5 paintings at the Rice Gallery booth, you could easily walk out of this fair with art under your arm for less than $1000.

Max Fishko was quoted in CultureMap as saying that 10,000 people "walked through the door" during the show. I'm dubious--Saturday didn't seem nearly as crowded as Saturday at HFAF. And even if it's true, how many of them paid to get in? I had my press pass, but I also had four free VIP passes given to me by various people and institutions. I tried to give them away but everyone I offered one to already had one! TCAF had flooded the Houston art scene with free passes--wisely I think.

I think a lot of people on the scene have warm feelings toward this show because the local nonprofit art scene was courted heavily by artMRKT. Again, this seems like part of the strategy to brand TCAF as something different from HFAF. Glasstire, which had a great booth/saloon set-up, drooled all over the show--a live blog and a generally positive assessment from Laura Lark (she was somewhat less kind to HFAF). Even a piece by Sarah Fisch called "Texas Contemporary Peeves and Qualms" was positive. I don't think any of these pieces were less than sincere, but I also get the feeling that they were courted pretty hard by artMRKT.

And even if they were, so what? TCAF was a nice show. It was full on art that I liked. It had a bunch of nice installations. And apparently it was successful. What does that mean? I guess we'll have two art fairs again next year.

Quantumdada Phase 2 at Rudolph Blume

When artists start talking about quantum physics, that's when I reach for my particle accelerator. It's dangerous ground for a curator or artist. I know we are supposed to be living in a beautiful world of cross-disciplinary art, but there are certain subjects in science and mathematics which have an undeniable appeal to writers and artists that they should resist. Mind-blowing phrases like "the uncertainty principle" and "spooky action at a distance" sound so cool that they draw artists and writers in, who then construct awkward metaphors out of these very precise and specific scientific definitions. Good for artists for trying, but rarely do they have anything useful to say about more abstruse, counterintuitive areas of science and mathematics. (Here's a notable exception: Everything and More by David Foster Wallace, who tackles infinity as a mathematical concept--not a metaphor, not a metaphysical construct.)

So I was pretty skeptical approaching Quantumdada Phase 2, up now at Rudolph Blume. (Even more skeptical after reading Michael Bise's evisceration of "Phase 1.") And in terms of saying anything interesting about quantum physics or science in general, my skepticism was rewarded. But that doesn't mean that the art was bad. On the contrary, I thought it was a pretty decent collection of pieces. The less literal they were, the less they tried to be about physics, the better they were.


Michael Brims, Oval Eyes Shaking, video, 2010

Curator Eisele Volker writes "'Oval Eyes Shaking' represents the conscious observer of this room [the front gallery]. Every room has its own conscious observer in order to represent Dada consciousness and to, hopefully, interact with the quantum world." Boy, is he putting a lot of responsibility on Michael Brims' wacky video. I like this video not because it seems in any way to "represent Dada consciousness," but because it feels like Brim has created a video version of Googly Eyes. (And of course, being the rock nerd that I am, I was also reminded of this classic.) But what I found a little weird about Volker's description was that he hoped it would interact with the quantum world. His hopes should be amply fulfilled, since like all matter and energy, Brim's video is continuously interacting with the quantum world, as the electrons in every atom in the room achieve their stochastically determined quantum states... But I assume that's not what Volker meant. But I'll confess that I don't have a clue what he means by yoking Dada and quantum physics together. Dada was a reaction to the insanity of mankind, which was slaughtering itself by the millions as the first Dadaists performed on the stage at Cabaret Voltaire. Quantum physics, as strange as its results are, is the result of supreme acts of ratiocination. Dada is deliberately irrational.


Kevin Jones, Blend, photographs

This may be my favorite piece in the show. While I don't see a connection with quantum physics, there is a connection with science. This kind of photodocumentation seems typical of how a scientist would observe a movement--carefully, deliberately, obsessively, from a single vantage point. One thinks of the work of Eadweard Muybridge and Harold Edgerton. Of course, the irony was that those to photo pioneers were capturing images that the human eye couldn't discern, whereas Kevin Jones is capturing images that we can easily see for ourselves, but would be far too boring to watch. Jones solves the boredom problem by showing them all simultaneously. The viewer doesn't have to wait for the snail to complete his transit.


Kevin Jones, Blend detail, photographs

Also in the "science-y" vein is The Path of Least Resistance by Ariane Roesch.


Ariane Roesch, The Path of Least Resistance, Electroluminescent Wire, 2010

Ariane Roesch has been using EL Wire in her work for a while now. EL Wire is a very clever product; basically,  it is simply copper wire coated with phosphor.



Of all the pieces here, this is one where a principle of quantum physics is perhaps most at its core. As electricity travels through wire, the energy causes electrons in the phosphor molecules to become excited and jump up to a higher energy level (a quantum leap). When the electrons fall, they release photons. The principle with EL Wire is not terribly different from fluorescent lamps (and like them, EL Wires are very efficient).

Being in that room had another science-y association for me.



I wonder if Roesch were deliberately recalling the scene in 2001 where Bowman slowly, carefully kills HAL.


Daniel Heimbinder, Entanglement, colored marker on paper

One has to wonder whether Daniel Heimbinder was inspired by the concept of quantum entanglement or if he just happened to have created one of his brilliant cartoon images--the offsprint of a Philip Guston painting and a Saul Steinberg drawing--that also just happened to work with that word, "entanglement." His entanglement and quantum entanglement are unrelated. His bears a closer relationship to the Marx Brothers than to Richard Feynman.


Greg Metz, George W Bush as a Kleenex dispenser, sculpture bust with tissue

Here is a piece by Greg Metz that has no obvious relationship to quantum physics at all, and only a slight one to Dada (insofar as both were anti-war expressions). The plaque reads "MY DEEPEST REGRETS TO THOSE WHO HAVE SACRIFICED THEIR LOVED ONES FOR MY IRAQ WAR". This sentiment is mocked by the goofy smile on Bush's face, and by the inadequacy of offering a tissue to a grieving spouse or parent. It's a pretty brutal, bitter piece, and it works where so many other political works fail by being personal. George Bush and his failure as a person are the subject.

You will notice that the last two pieces have a somewhat orange tint to them. That is not local color. It's the result of sharing a small room with David Graeve's piece, an orange balloon, 8 feet in diameter, hung from the ceiling. The room itself was hardly 12 feet square (I'm guessing), so this balloon dominated the room. The light reflected off the balloon gave everything an orange tint (not as orange as in Ariane Roesch's room, of course). I couldn't take a picture of it--there was no place within the room where I could get the whole balloon into my viewfinder.

This show had as its objective the task of "connecting aspects of the quantum world with the world of art as Dada." In that regard, it is a failure. However, the better way to look at the show is to ignore its stated objective and consider it as a heterogeneous collection of artworks, some good, some less so. Leave the curatorial conceit behind and see it as a group show. On this basis, I recommend it. There are pieces here worth seeing.